


a night at the gin mill

by sheriffandsteel



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Modern Westeros, an over abundance of 1920s slang, featuring: a speakeasy themed murder mystery party, flapper Arya, meet cute, pretendsies murder!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheriffandsteel/pseuds/sheriffandsteel
Summary: Arya was pretty sure she knew who the killer was, she’d known it since the ‘body’ had been discovered twenty minutes ago.Him.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 12
Kudos: 128





	a night at the gin mill

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not over season eight and all I can stand to write are AUs so here's another one!  
> Might end up making a series of Gendrya meet cutes who knows.  
> The game they're playing is loosely based on [this](https://www.playingwithmurder.com/jazz-age-jeopardy-p-18.html#product_tabs_mystery_characters).

The tassels of her dress were tangled around her thighs again. 

Arya tried to untangle them with her fingers as inconspicuously as possible while she listened to Edric recount in a lowered voice the argument he had overheard earlier that evening. 

“The fella was sure giving her an earful.” Edric whispered, tapping on his own ear as he nodded furiously. Arya had to hand it to him, he’d really gone all out for his character and was using more 1920s slang than she’d managed to pick up from her google searches. His accent left a little to be desired, he couldn’t seem to pick one to stick to and was changing it out frequently, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Currently he sounded like an old-time movie gangster when just five minutes ago he’d had a nearly perfect British accent. 

Her dress finally untangled Arya straightened and eyed the men scattered around the room wondering which one of them might be the killer. She knew that Edric’s information might be false, he might even be the killer himself and trying to put them all on the wrong track but Arya didn’t think so. She was pretty sure she knew who the killer was, she’d known it since the ‘body’ had been discovered twenty minutes ago. 

Him. 

Arya didn’t know his real name; he was one of Shireen’s relatives based off the resemblance in their coloring. He hadn’t seemed to be very interested in playing the game earlier in the evening during act one, before the murder had been announced. He’d been sitting on the other end of the table from her but as far as Arya could tell he hadn’t said very much to anyone and what he had said had been short and to the point. His character name was Win and he was supposed to be an accountant or something but he didn’t seem to be trying very hard with the role. At first Arya had just assumed that he hadn’t wanted to be there and had been coerced into it by Shireen to make sure they had enough numbers for the cast. But then the death happened and his eyes lit up and his whole demeanor changed. 

Now he couldn’t seem to stop talking, going up to every single person and instigating a conversation with them. Arya had been watching his progress around the room while she did her own sleuthing (she was no stranger to murder mystery parties; Rickon still held bi-monthly ones and always made sure to throw a special one when she was home). At first, she had thought that he was just really interested in figuring out who the killer was but soon she realized he was just trying to throw people off his own scent. 

Arya sipped on her cocktail (a Bee’s Knees, Shireen had really devoted to the theme for the evening) and crossed the room closer to where ‘Win’ stood talking with Lyanna. He was taller than she’d thought, she’d be surprised if her head reached his chin even in her heels, and his shoulders were broad enough to suggest he either spent quite a lot of time in the gym or he worked with his hands for a living. His back was to her so Arya let her eyes travel down the length of him appreciatively, giving Lyanna a careless shrug when she sent her a knowing look. 

Following her gaze, the man turned to look over his shoulder and his eyes locked onto Arya as she took another sip of her drink. Ice blue eyes met hers and Arya found herself frozen to the spot and for a moment she forgot where she was and who she was supposed to be. A gaze with such cool colored eyes shouldn’t have been able to contain so much heat. 

Thankfully by the time he’d excused himself from Lyanna and approached her Arya had managed to gather both her wits and her character. She squared her shoulders as he stopped in front of her (far closer than he’d stood with anyone else Arya couldn’t help but notice) and gave him a shy smile as he hesitated in front of her, twisting his hands around his glass. With every passing moment and each fragment of overheard conversation Arya grew surer by the second that the man in front of her was the murderer of poor Regan Richards. 

“Well this evening has turned into a real trip for biscuits hasn’t it?” Arya asked perching on the edge of the armchair behind her and crossing her legs. ‘Win’s’ eyes flickered down at the movement and Arya smirked as his gaze lingered on her legs. Her flapper dress was quite a bite shorter than anything women in the 1920s probably wore even if Arya had bought it from a vintage clothing shop. She’d like the sparkly green and blue pattern on it and it had seemed just bright and short enough for something her character would have gone for. Her character sheet said Ella was a bit of a flirt and Arya had been leaning hard on that all evening. She’d even gotten Arianna to blush earlier which had been a feat she’d been trying to accomplish since they’d met freshman year. Honestly, that alone meant the whole evening was a success as far as Arya was concerned. 

But Arya had a competitive streak almost as long as her list of people who pissed her off so she wasn’t about to walk out of there without correctly guessing the murderer. Thankfully she was ninety percent sure she already knew who it was and she was looking right at him. 

“Sure didn’t leave the house thinking anybody’d get bumped tonight.” the man (murderer) agreed, fumbling a cigarette holder out of his jacket pocket. Arya rose her eyebrows at that. Shireen was an adamant nonsmoker and this man who was clearly a relative should have been aware of that. He took a cigarette from the holder and offered the case out to Arya who took one with a flirty smile. It's what Ella would have done; hostess rules be damned. 

Arya placed the cigarette between her lips and nearly burst out laughing (and out of character). She'd thought the cigarettes had looked a little funny but she’d just assumed the man had hand rolled them or something. Now that it was between her teeth, she could taste the sugar and she realized the man was carting around candy cigarettes in a silver smoking case. 

The man’s eyes twinkled with merriment as he closed and pocketed the case and Arya could tell he knew how close he’d come to getting her to break her façade. Breaking character was a huge no no at these parties, especially since it was Shireen’s first time hosting a murder mystery dinner. Arya was not about to be the first one to snap out of her role, no freaking way. 

“Well?” Arya asked, raising her eyebrows and leaning forward even further into the man’s space. She could see the individual rows of pinstripes on his suit coat this close. It wasn’t just black and white like most of the ones she’d seen, this one had alternating rows of black, white and gray. It looked worn in places and fit him in a loose way that would likely have gotten him scorn if this really was the twenties but Arya just found it made him look even more attractive. Arya mentally shook her head at herself and chided herself to focus. She could appreciate his attractiveness when he was no longer a murderer, right now she had a case to solve. “You gonna give a girl a light or what?” 

“Apologies miss.” ‘Win’ replied before pulling a book of matches from a different pocket and shuffling slightly closer. Arya was pretty sure if she uncrossed her legs he’d be standing in between her thighs. 

He hadn’t seemed at all interested in the game earlier in the evening so Arya had suspected he would only mime lighting her cigarette so she startled a little when he actually lit the match. The sound of it striking seemed incredibly loud among the chatter of the room and Arya suspected several people turned to look at them curiously at the noise but she didn’t bother to turn around and look. That would mean she had to take her eyes off of the man who was inching even closer to her and lifting a match to her face. The tip of the flame brushed against her candy cigarette and ‘Win’ moved his hand aside to shake the match out before he dropped it into his nearly empty sidecar glass. 

Arya pretended to smoke as she looked up at him through her lashes. Her heart was racing all of a sudden and she tried to pretend it was because Ella was scared at being so close to a murderer but she wasn’t fooling either of them. 

“You see anything fishy this evening?” ‘Win’ asked as he took out another match and pretended to light his own cigarette. Arya smiled and leaned slightly closer, holding her cigarette delicately between two fingers as she beckoned for him to close the small distance between them. He was so much taller than her that with her sitting down she was having to crane her neck back painfully to look up at him. 

He stooped into her space and Arya couldn’t help but breathe in the smell of him. He smelled like soap and motor oil which was a welcome relief from the thick vintage cologne Hot-Pie and Lommy had apparently bathed in. 

Arya wasn’t naturally much of a flirt. Part of it was because she didn’t see the point of it and tended to be incredibly direct and another part was because she could be terribly self-conscious despite how hard she tried to hide it. Her few attempts of flirting in the past had always fallen flat or left her feeling scrubbed raw and embarrassed for days. As such she tended to avoid flirting or anything that might be misconstrued as flirting. 

Thankfully her character Ella had no such qualms. 

Switching her glass into the hand with the cigarette Arya reached her free hand up to tug gently at the man’s lapel. Murderer or not he was still an attractive man and Ella figured she might as well have some fun with him before she exposed him for what he was (and their characters ended and Arya became her normal boring non-flirty self again). Arya tugged him down to her, putting her redlipsticked lips next to his ear as she whispered as if she was informing him of a great big secret, “We’re in a gin mill darling. It's all fishy here.” 

She lingered for a moment before pulling away, patting his chest fondly as she let go of his coat. ‘Win’ looked a little dazed for a moment before he smiled at her softly. Arya decided to use the moment to her advantage and shifted so that her calf was lightly brushing the outside of his thigh. His eyes flickered down at the touch and Arya whispered, “I heard Regan was in pretty deep with some real bad men. Folks are saying they were right goons.” 

‘Win’s’ eyes flickered back up to hers and he leaned in closer (Arya hadn’t thought it was possible) as he whispered, “You think she might’ve been a moll?” 

A moll was a gangster’s girlfriend and Arya was certain that Regan, waitress and Broadway star wannabe, had most certainly not been one. But she was trying to get ‘Win’ off the scent of her real line of questioning and she figured the best way to do that was to distract him and dangle a possible suspect for him to frame in front of him. 

Arya nodded and pretended to shiver as if she were afraid. “She must have learned something she shouldn’t’ve for them to off her like this. And in public too.” 

Her eyes were locked on the man’s face so she saw the miniscule shift in his expression as she mentioned Regan learning something from her supposed mobster boyfriend. She rose her eyebrows curiously before she hastily locked her expression back into one of fear. “I hope they pinch whoever did this to her. She didn’t deserve this, no matter what she knew.” 

The man nodded and squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. Arya shivered at the contact, whether from his touch alone or because her character was afraid of a murderer laying his hands on her Arya couldn’t really say. Jon had always said she got a little too into the murder mystery games. After a while it was hard for her to remember where she ended and her character began. In this case Ella and Arya had one thing in common, they both found the man touching them to be incredibly attractive. 

Oh, and a murderer but hey we all have our flaws. 

Mentally kicking herself Arya forced herself to tune in as ‘Win’ carefully let his hand drop from his shoulder as he assured her, “Whoever did this ain’t gonna get away with it.” 

“No.” Arya agreed, batting her eyes as she stared up at him. “He won’t.” 

She wasn’t able to get much more out of Win before Aegon interrupted them, casting her a knowing look and a sly waggle of his eyebrows. Arya resisted the urge to flip him off and settled for bumping their shoulders together roughly as she excused herself and crossed the room. His character was supposed to be a tough gangster and watching him try to sound fierce nearly made Arya break character. She was barely able to escape into the hall in time. 

Drawing a deep breath, she let her head fall back against the wall and stared up at the empty stairwell as she eavesdropped on the conversations inside. She couldn’t make out too much over the sound of the big band music coming from the record player but a few snatches drifted out now and then. Enough for her to be able to paint a bit more vibrant painting of the evening than she’d had before. 

Catching sight of herself in the mirror across the way Arya straightened her beaded headband and fluffed the edges of her hair. She didn’t feel secure enough in her theory yet to start an accusation and she was about to go back inside the party proper to keep digging when footsteps caught her attention and she turned to face the open doorway into the dining room. 

‘Win’ lingered there, looking at her unsurely and Arya felt her heart start to speed up. This time she knew for a fact it had nothing to do with Ella’s fear of being alone with a murderer. The racing of her heart was all because of Arya’s thrill of being alone with this attractive stranger whose real name she found herself desperate to know. 

“This place doesn’t seem right for a dame like you.” ‘Win’ remarked, leaning casually against the wall beside her, close enough that the soft material of his suit jacket brushed against her bare arm. 

“You don’t know any dames like me.” Arya assured him, turning her head to smile up at him coyly. She wasn’t sure if she was being Ella or herself at this point. The line seemed to be blurring with every moment she was alone with this man. 

She really needed to focus on the game. Whoever was the murderer would still be holding onto the murder weapon (a prop knife ‘borrowed’ from the theater department in this case) and Arya had seen with the cigarettes how deep ‘Win’s’ pockets were. If she could just come up with a way to check this man’s pockets, she could confirm her suspicions and prove the man to be the coldblooded murderer she knew he was. 

“No?” ‘Win’ asked, shifting so that he was leaning on his side against the wall and looking down at her curiously. He was so much taller than her it was ridiculous and Arya felt a twinge of annoyance at how she had to lean her head back to meet his gaze. His chilly blue eyes searched hers and Arya found herself wondering if he was also struggling to know if he was in character or not at this point. “What kind of dame are you?” 

Rolling her shoulders back to steel herself Arya let her character take over every bit of her as she reached up to clutch the man’s lapels in her hands and tug him closer to her. His eyes widened in surprise as she pressed up onto her toes and brought one hand up to his face, tracing the outline of his bottom lip with her thumb as the faint outline of stubble scratched her palm. 

“Would you like to find out?” Arya whispered as she used the hand still clutching his coat to discreetly pat his pocket, hoping to find the outline of the knife. Arya knew that kissing other guests wasn’t exactly the best way to find out if they were a murderer or not but hey, Ella was a flirt and a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Besides, it wasn’t like Arya was complaining about the idea of kissing this man. 

The man stepped closer, nudging his shoes between hers and Arya swallowed hard as he reached his hands up to gently cup her face. Her heart was hammering in her ears and she knew she was supposed to be doing something else, being someone else, but all she could focus on were those blue eyes coming closer and closer to her. Heat pooled in the bottom of her stomach as his eyes flickered down to gaze at her lips and she licked them on instinct. His scent had all but overwhelmed her other senses and Arya found herself very grateful for the wall at her back as her knees trembled. 

He hesitated a hair’s breadth away from her lips, his hands still cupping her face. Arya was going cross eyed trying to look at him and she could see that his own eyes had drifted shut. His breath tickled her face as he whispered, “Can I kiss you?” 

His voice sounded different than it had before and Arya wondered if he had broken character. For that matter, had she broken character? Was this still part of the game? 

She didn’t really care to be honest. All she wanted was to kiss the man in front of her, in character or not. Arya nodded slightly before remembering that his eyes were closed. Her voice was barely more than a breath as she whispered, “Yes.” 

The word was still dying on her tongue when the man closed the last little bit of distance and kissed her. Arya shivered at the feel of his lips soft on hers. He tasted like whiskey and the candy cigarettes they’d shared earlier and the taste of him shoved all other thoughts from Arya’s brain. Heat pooled in the bottom of her stomach as he dropped his hands from her face to wrap them around her and pull her impossibly closer to him. She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and clung to him, her toes curling painfully in her heels as he ran his tongue over her bottom lip, parting her mouth. 

Arya knew that she’d had an agenda for getting this close to him, for starting this, but she found that she couldn’t remember what it was with the way his hands were threading into her hair and his tongue was caressing hers. Arya curled her fingers into his hair, knocking his hat askew and it felt as if the entire world had shortened, condensing down until it was just the two of them. 

But of course, it hadn’t and the sound of someone obnoxiously clearing their throat made them spring apart as if they’d been burned. Arya wiped at her mussed lipstick as she looked sheepishly over at the open doorway. 

“If you two are done necking we’ve caught the murderer.” Edric smirked as he looked between the two of them in amusement. 

Arya cursed about the fact that this meant the game was over and she’d lost. Once Rickon found out he was never going to let her live it down. She looked at Edric in part annoyance and part curiosity. “Who killed her?” 

“Jaqueline.” Edric shrugged as he named Myrcella’s character before something caught his eye and he turned back into the dining room leaving Arya and her stranger alone again. 

She slumped against the wall with a despondent shake of her head. Myrcella’s character hadn’t even been on her radar of suspects. Either Arya was getting rusty or Myrcella was a far better actress than she’d given her credit for. “Of course, she’s a theater major.” Arya muttered to herself, letting her head fall back against the wall again. 

“Which one is she?” ‘Win’ asked, shooting a curious look over at the door at the sound of everyone laughing in the other room. 

“Myrcella. Pretty blonde, red dress. I’m sure you’ve noticed her.” Arya ran her fingers over her the beads on her own dress feeling some of her usual self-consciousness start to seep into her now that the game was over. Ella slipped further away by the second and with her went the confidence that had let Arya walk out of the house in this outfit 

“No.” the man fidgeted with his sleeves as he spoke to their shoes, his confidence seeming to have left him too now that reality had taken back over and their characters were gone. “I’ve spent all night only noticing you.” 

Arya’s heart skipped a beat at the words before doubt reared its ugly head and she shook her own head in denial. She kept her eyes on a spot over his left shoulder as she said in a rush spurred by self-doubt and several sugary cocktails, “You only noticed Ella you mean. If I’d been myself tonight you never would have noticed me.” The words made her shoulders sag in defeat and Arya crossed her arms over her chest and resisted the urge to put her fingers to her lips to see if she could still feel his kiss lingering there. 

The man’s voice was hoarse as he whispered softly, “I’ve been noticing you for weeks now.” 

Arya’s eyes snapped up and the man looked down at her sheepishly. “I’ve seen you around campus a few times. I wanted to introduce myself but-” he shrugged again and looked tongue tied before he finally shoved his hands into his pockets and admitted. “I didn’t know how.” 

She wasn’t sure if she believed him or not but his face looked so open and honest it was hard not to think he was telling the truth. Besides, what reason did he have to lie? With some effort Arya managed to quiet her insecurities as she reminded him, “You still haven’t.” 

The man tilted his head slightly as he regarded her, “Haven’t what?” 

“Introduced yourself.” Arya reminded him, digging her fingers into the small beads of her dress. “I’ll go first if it’ll help. I’m Arya.” 

“Gendry.” 

A knot in Arya’s shoulders relaxed at the sound of his name. She hadn’t realized how much it had been bothering her not to know it. They both fell quiet and looked at each other nervously which Arya found endlessly amusing considering what they had been doing just a few minutes ago. 

“Are you and Shireen related?” Arya asked curiously more to fill the sudden silence than anything else. 

“Cousins.” Gendry confirmed as he scuffed his worn leather shoe against the floor. 

Arya nodded and tried to think of something else to say. She didn’t want to go back into the party but she also didn’t want to just stand awkwardly in the hallway. What she really wanted was to shed this costume as easily as her character had shed her and go back to being boring old Arya Stark. Gendry had said he’d noticed her as Arya, she wanted to find out if he could like her as Arya too. 

If she was going to do that though there was something she needed to get off her chest first. 

“I thought you were the murderer.” Arya confessed, smiling sheepishly when Gendry’s eyes widened in disbelief. 

“And you made out with me anyway?” he asked trying hard to sound affronted but unable to keep the grin off his face. 

“What can I say? Ella has poor taste.” Arya admitted, channeling the remaining dregs of her character to reach out and wrap her fingers around Gendry’s lapel again. 

“It’s alright. I thought you were the murderer.” Gendry whispered conspiratorially as he stepped closer to her until the tips of their shoes brushed. Arya laughed as he placed his hands softly on her waist. 

“At least both our characters were idiots.” Arya all but giggled (not that she would ever admit to that fact) as she ran her hands up Gendry’s chest to encircle the back of his neck. 

“Or were they really really smart?” Gendry whispered, leaning down to place a light kiss on each of her cheeks on the word ‘really’. 

“Making out with a suspected murderer makes you smart now?” Arya asked breathlessly as Gendry pulled her flush against him and rested his forehead against hers. 

“No.” Gendry admitted before leaning down and kissing her softly. He pulled just far enough away to whisper against her lips, “But making out with you does.” 

Arya smiled and shifted closer so that they were kissing again. While she was usually a big fan of having the last word with Gendry’s lips on hers her brain was going a little bit too haywire to form a coherent thought. Besides, it was hard to argue with logic like that.


End file.
